Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 31st, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Mr. Sarai, you have one minute.

[Randeep Sarai, Liberal, Surrey Centre, BC]

My question is to Mr. Croutze.

Do you guys have a brief or a document that would perhaps make it much easier for the approval process that you could forward to us afterwards? We can perhaps give that to the department.

It seems that the services are covered, but the problem is the process by which you get approved. As opposed to normal insurance programs or benefits under which certain items are already pre-approved up to a certain limit, you have this overlayer that requires you to pre-examine, send it in, and come back. I think that probably costs the department extra money as well.

If there is a briefing note or a document you could give us to suggest how we can make this federal health program much more efficient, specifically for the dental program, we would really appreciate it.

[Dr. Randall Croutze]

Thank you very much. I appreciate that. We will certainly take care of that. We don't have a document like that, because for us it's self-evident, but we'll certainly delineate the differences between the programs so that you can look at it in terms of gaining efficiencies.

I think that's what we're looking for. We want to make this efficient. We appreciate the investment that's being made—

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Mr. Croutze.

Mr. Saroya, you have five minutes, please.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all the witnesses for coming out and giving us some of your insight.

Dr. Croutze, I hear the same question all the time with regard to the Syrian refugees. Is this additional money we're looking at? Is the problem that we have something, but we're looking for additional money, or is it just the approval that is the issue?

[Dr. Randall Croutze]

Certainly I think we want to be efficient. What we're looking at is taking care of some of the administrative burden to allow for access to care. Some of the stuff we're looking at will not be a big investment. We want to make sure it's efficient.

We talked about administrative controls. These are things like allowing for bitewings. It's interesting that they'll cover for a full mouth series, which is 16 periapical films, and two bitewings, but I just need the two bitewings to determine if there are cavities. The other ones don't really help me. They'll pay for the whole envelope of it, and they just don't understand that those are the ones I need. It would actually decrease costs by having that as a stand-alone fee.

The issue with stainless steel crowns, which have a very similar cost to a large amalgam filling, doesn't make sense. It's not the standard of care that we would do that. It would be something we would find unacceptable in any other cohort. We just wouldn't do it, and the cost is the same.

To sum up, we're looking at efficiencies, I guess, not a big envelope of money.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Absolutely. This is good to know. Hopefully we can work on it and make it right.

My next question is for you, Mr. Baig, up in Scarborough in Toronto.

It looks like you're frustrated up there, where you're doing all that good work. You had 187 families sponsoring 8,500 people, which is much better than the government-sponsored refugees. Is there anything that we can do, or that the government should do? What should be improved from our side?

[Mirza Hakeem Baig]

Thank you for the question.

Basically what had happened in the three-month period when we sponsored 8,500 people was that before that there were no allocations for Syria and Iraq. The SAHs, the sponsorship agreement holders, could apply for as many as we could, and we did that. We took advantage of that. However, after that, as of March 31, the allocations were minimum, based on how many we did before that, in 2015. We did not do anything in 2015, because the crisis started in 2016. The chances to apply and the procedures were clear enough for us to start in January of 2016.

We did that, and found that now, after March 31, we got an allocation from IRCC for six people only. We have more than 67 families in line now and we have stopped taking in applications. We have already in line 67 families who we sponsored, and now we cannot. The applications are being returned to us. Today we got a communication that six of the applications will be returned to us. We already had the funding in place. We have to go back to the congregation and tell them that we cannot help, and that they have to take back the money.

This is a challenge. I mean, when the government was coming up with an allocation formula, they should have taken into consideration how many families, how many people, were sponsored from January to March 31. Based on that, they should have come up with an allocation formula. They didn't, and that's a frustration.

[Bob Saroya, Conservative, Markham—Unionville, ON]

How is it finding jobs for these refugees? Did you find some jobs for the people who are here?

[Mirza Hakeem Baig]

We have different concerned groups working with us—for example, in Milton there is a gentleman called Jim Estill. They have jobs already there for the families coming in.

These are not just odd jobs, but ones based on their qualifications. The project managers from each of the groups who work with me see that they get good jobs. They're trained. Odd jobs are there, so they can get those jobs too, but we are not focusing on them. We are ensuring that after the one-year period, they don't go back on welfare. The money they get from their jobs should be sufficient for them to sustain themselves. If they're only doing odd jobs, it's very difficult for them to do that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Borys Wrzesnewskyj]

Thank you, Mr. Baig.

Mr. Ehsassi is next. You have five minutes, please.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to start by thanking everyone. All the information we've received today has been helpful, and I look forward to going over the transcript from today's meeting.

I'll start with Ms. Davis. Ms. Davis, I noted that previously you worked with St. Christopher House for six years. Is that correct?

[Carolyn Davis]

Yes.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

That said, at one point during your testimony you said that insofar as Syrian youth are concerned, we should be focused on tending to their needs outside of the class.

Given your experience in this field, would you care to elaborate on that, and what you would envision to be the best approach to this issue?

[Carolyn Davis]

I'm not sure I have all the answers on that one, because it's a difficult conundrum.

If the Syrian youth are in school and we can provide some supports outside of school in the times when other kids would be doing clubs or other activities in order to give the youth a safe place to connect with other kids who are going through the same thing or who have gone through a similar experience, then that would be helpful in making them feel that there was a light at the end of the tunnel and they were not alone in this situation.

That may keep youth in school, and I see that as being the main goal—to try to keep them in school even though they are facing some significant obstacles to feeling like they belong. It really is about feeling like you belong.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Thank you.

You noted at some point that you were going to be making submissions to IRCC today. I was wondering if our committee could also receive a copy of those submissions.

[Carolyn Davis]

It's a funding application that we will present to them. I guess....

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

That's if you think it would be helpful—

[Carolyn Davis]

Yes—

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

—to what we're doing.

[Carolyn Davis]

I may edit it a bit because there are things that are specific to them, but, yes. I don't think there is anything highly secretive in there. It's just some of our suggestions about moving forward.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Absolutely. Thank you.

Now I have a couple of questions for Mr. Baig.

First of all, I'm incredibly impressed by how you have managed to galvanize the community to come out, to volunteer, and to give up their time.

You said that on weekends you have classes for young Syrian children. You said it was not dedicated, and all the children who come to your centre get to interact with the Syrian children.

Do you think that's the better approach, or would you rather have dedicated activities for children?

[Mirza Hakeem Baig]

Absolutely, that's a better approach we have seen with the immigrants, and not just Syrians, but the other immigrants also. As long as they interact with the diverse population of Canada, the diversity we have in Canada, and as long as we are in that setting, it's good. It's very helpful. It opens things up, basically.

We also run a soup kitchen every Saturday morning. It's just like a restaurant. We do that on Saturdays. The kids come in, they sit together, and they socialize. Everyone is there. It's not just open to Muslims. Everyone comes.

[Ali Ehsassi, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Excellent.

I understand a lot of people are contacting your organization. Do you hear from employers as well, people who potentially would be interested in hiring some of the families that have come to Toronto?

[Mirza Hakeem Baig]

We do. We do that, but we leave it to the volunteers who are working with us to ensure that they get good jobs and that they are paid well. We make sure they don't go into odd jobs.

We also ensure they go into the same job they had been doing previously. If someone is a baker, we ensure that he gets some training in that. If he's a truck driver, he gets training in that. If he is an auto mechanic, we see that he is trained. We see that he gets some certification, rather than going to a workshop and working directly.

There's planning involved in that. We are taking that route.